Chief Justice Warren, writing for the Supreme Court, at page 22, described the situation as follows:

One general interest is of course that of effective crime prevention and detection; it is this interest which underlies the recognition that a police officer may in appropriate circumstances and in an appropriate manner approach a person for purposes of investigating possibly criminal behavior even though there is no probable cause to make an arrest. It was this legitimate investigative function Officer McFadden was discharging when he decided to approach petitioner and his companions.

It would appear to be clearly unreasonable to deny the officer the power to take necessary measures to determine whether the person is in fact carrying a weapon and to neutralize the threat of physical harm.

392 U.S. at 24. At pages 26-27, the Court further filled in the details justifying the stop and frisk doctrine:

It does not follow that because an officer may lawfully arrest a person only when he is apprised of facts sufficient to warrant a belief that the person has committed or is committing a crime, the officer is equally unjustified, absent that kind of evidence, in making any intrusions short of an arrest. Moreover, a perfectly reasonable apprehension of danger may arise long before the officer is possessed of adequate information to justify taking a person into custody for the purpose of prosecuting him for a crime.

392 U.S. at 26-27. And, at page 27, the Court further elaborated the doctrine as follows:

The officer need not be absolutely certain that the individual is armed; the issue is whether a reasonably prudent man in the circumstances would be warranted in the belief that his safety or that of others was in danger.

392 U.S. at 27.

In the case under consideration, the police officers, proceeding in a westerly direction in the neighborhood of 4th and Rhode Island Avenue, N.E., monitored a lookout from the dispatcher to the effect that a black male, wearing a black hat and a blue and green jacket, walking south on First Street, N.W., between U and V Streets, was armed with a pistol. Officer Sherrie Bonner, a veteran of six years' service on the police force, most of which was in the Narcotics Branch, was operating the unmarked police cruiser. She and her partner proceeded to First Street, N.W., where they made a right turn upon observing a man fitting the description broadcast by the dispatcher. She stopped the cruiser, both officers got out and went to the defendant. Each had drawn the service weapon. They directed the defendant to place his hands on the fence surrounding a church located at that point. The defendant was slow in complying although the officers had announced that they were police. Each was dressed in casual clothes. Officer Bonner directed her partner to commence a pat-down search, noticing a bulge in the right jacket pocket. It developed that this was a large sum of currency, some of which was secured by a rubber band and the rest was loose. Officer Jones, a husky but relatively inexperienced officer, pulled out this money, which he held in his right hand and continued the pat-down with his left. He felt a hard object in defendant's crotch area. When he touched it, defendant threw up his hands, which had the effect of knocking the currency out of Jones' hand and instantaneously, the defendant ran up the street in a northerly direction. The officers did not stop to pick up the money. Jones pursued him, followed by Bonner, who had a police walkie-talkie, into which she stated what had happened and called for assistance. At about First and T Streets, N.W., Officer Jones overtook the defendant. They struggled. Officer Bonner told Officer Jones to put him down. This was done but it did not end the struggle. The officers had observed during the chase that defendant seemed to be trying to reach with his hands an object in the area of his crotch. They were uncertain as to what this was since the frisk had not been completed and they were apprehensive that it might be the weapon to which the dispatcher had made reference.

On the day the Supreme Court announced its opinion in Terry, it also decided Sibron v. New York, 392 U.S. 40, 20 L. Ed. 2d 917, 88 S. Ct. 1889 (1968). Sibron had been arrested by a city police officer for possessing heroin. The evidence on which the officer relied was that he had observed Sibron conversing with several individuals known to the officer to be drug addicts. The officer had not observed the transfer of any suspected narcotics nor had he overheard any of the conversation. The conviction, sustained by the state court, was reversed. After discussing the inadequacy of the basis for the officer's seizure of the heroin, the Court said, at page 60, "If Patrolman Martin lacked probable cause for an arrest, however, his seizure and search of Sibron might still have been justified at the outset if he had reasonable grounds to believe that Sibron was armed and dangerous." 392 U.S. at 60 (citing Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 88 S. Ct. 1868 (1968)).

In the instant case, the officers had received a call from the dispatcher to the effect that a black male with a black hat and a blue and green jacket was armed with a pistol and was proceeding south on First Street near U Street. Upon arriving at a point where the path of the cruiser and the path of the defendant intersected, he was observed by the officers and he reasonably met the description of the person believed to be carrying a pistol.

The officers proceeded to take action in accordance with the principles announced in Terry, which resulted with the stopping of defendant and the subsequent pat-down. When he asked what he was being stopped for, Officer Bonner said, we are checking something out. In the momentary frisk, which revealed the bundle of cash in his right jacket pocket and a hard object in his crotch area, no determination had been made by the police respecting the need for detention. The pat-down was continuing. Suddenly the defendant knocked the bundle of cash from Officer Jones's hand and bolted and ran. Officer Jones followed the defendant and sought to apprehend him. Officer Bonner called into the walkie-talkie a brief report on what had happened and requested assistance. Officer Jones caught up with the fleeing suspect and after a brief struggle, wrestled him to the ground on the median strip located at First and T Streets. Both officers were still trying to gain possession of the second hard object contained in a brown paper bag which defendant was clutching to his midsection. When assisting officers arrived, the police gained possession of the brown paper bag. It contained 100 ziplock packets of crack cocaine. Defendant was then arrested and taken into custody.

The first problem with which the Court is confronted is an analysis of the cases involving an anonymous tip. In United States v. White, 208 U.S. App. D.C. 289, 648 F.2d 29, 45 (D.C. Cir. 1981), Judge Wald, writing for the Court, summarized the requirements of the Terry stop and frisk doctrine as follows:

648 F.2d at 45. The case in which Judge Wald was speaking was a narcotics case and the anonymous tip was confined to drugs and did not specify anything about the defendant's being armed. The essential information given by the anonymous tipster was that a young black male known as Nicky, about 19 or 20 years old, wearing a blue jump suit with white stripes, had parked his 1971 Ford LTD in front of No. 1 15th Street, N.E., and had entered a 1974 Oldsmobile and driven away in it. License tags for both cars were given. The informant further stated that Nicky was involved in narcotics traffic and would be "dirty" with drugs when he returned. Detective Hill and his partner went to the location in question and waited for the Oldsmobile to return. With weapons drawn, they approached the driver and his passenger. They directed the driver and his passenger to exit the Oldsmobile and place their hands on the hood. The officers' attention had been attracted to what they thought was a tinfoil object, like the ones used in narcotics traffic, dropping from the defendant's hand as he got out of the vehicle. The Court of Appeals sustained the Terry stop, which developed into an arrest and a conviction.

The Court acknowledged that there was a split of opinion in the circuits respecting the weight to be given anonymous tips. The first case to which Judge Wald referred was Bailey v. United States, 128 U.S. App. D.C. 354, 389 F.2d 305 (D.C. Cir. 1967). In that opinion, the Court was confronted with the following facts: Three Negro males had robbed and beaten an old farmer who was making egg deliveries. Part of the incident was observed by a passerby not otherwise identified except that his name was Donald E. Leigh, who called the police and described the getaway car in which the robbers left the scene as a blue 1953 or 1954 Chevrolet hardtop. An officer directing traffic approximately three miles distant heard the broadcast and recalled such a vehicle passing his intersection containing four young Negro males. This information he gave the dispatcher. Approximately three and one-half miles distant from that intersection, the officers who subsequently took action observed such a vehicle and stopped it. The question was whether there was probable cause to make this arrest, if it were an arrest. Upon stopping the vehicle, the officers asked the driver for his driver's license. Upon returning it, he saw a brown wallet on the floor, protruding from under the front seat. He asked whose it was. No one claimed it. A search revealed that it belonged to the robbery victim. Appellant was then arrested. Judge Leventhal, concurring, stated, at page 314:

What the police did was stop a car to check out what everyone concedes were suspicious circumstances. * * * A mere stop -- though it also must have some justification in the facts -- is not necessarily an "arrest" that triggers the requirement that the person be taken to a magistrate "as quickly as possible" as Rule 5 commands when an arrest is made. * * * What the police did was to act reasonably to bring a situation under control; they had no way of knowing whether the car would leave the jurisdiction, and once the occupants scattered it would be nearly impossible to reassemble them again. As Judge McGowan pointed out in Dorsey v. United States, 125 U.S. App. D.C. 355, 125 U.S. App. D.C. 355, 358, 372 F.2d 928, 931 (1967): "If policemen are to serve any purpose of detecting and preventing crime by being out on the streets at all, they must be able to take a closer look at challenging situations as they encounter them."

Reference was also made in Judge Wald's opinion to the case of Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 3 L. Ed. 2d 327, 79 S. Ct. 329 (1959). There, an informant named Hereford reported that Draper would arrive in Denver on a train from Chicago in one or two days and that he would be carrying a quantity of heroin. The informant supplied a brief description of Draper and predicted he would be wearing a light-colored raincoat, brown slacks and brown shoes and would be walking "real fast." Hereford supplied no basis for this information. Police observed a man fitting Hereford's description and placed him under arrest. He was indicted, tried and convicted and his conviction was sustained by the Supreme Court. It is noted that in Draper, probable cause was found. It is also noted that Hereford was regarded by the police as a reliable informant.

The information on the basis of which Draper was arrested is no more detailed than that broadcast by the dispatcher in the instant case. As the Court of Appeals pointed out in White, citizens calling the police and supplying anonymous tips are often reluctant to identify themselves and give more detailed information for the fear of implicating themselves in future retaliation. It is important to note that, when the police act as they did in Terry and as they did in the instant case on the information that a suspect is believed to be armed, reasonable prudence requires that they perform their duty in such a way that both the public and the arresting officers will not be harmed. It is also noted that in the instant case, the pat-down was continuing when suddenly the defendant broke and ran. This circumstance of flight, while not conclusive, adds materially to the quantum of suspicion justifying the chase and subsequent apprehension of the defendant. It is clear that, when the police seized the crack cocaine from the defendant's person, they had probable cause to make the arrest.

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